I see this as a test run. They can block the world’s navies.
“I see this as a test run. They can block the world’s navies.”
Fill a couple hundred of those containers with some explosives and get a jihadi to make a play for his 72 virgins.
L
The Panama Canal can also be blocked very easily, for months or longer.
The Panama Canal operates on gravity, with the water held in Gatun Lake flowing downhill through the locks.
If Gatun Dam is blown and the lake is drained, the Panama Canal is out of action for months at least.
This means that USN warships on the east coast will take weeks longer to get to “The Battle of Taiwan,” for example.
I don’t need to mention the HEAVY presence of the ChiComs in Panama.
And if the Suez Canal is blocked at the same time, NATO fleets will have to go around Africa to get to the battle.
Depends on who you are calling ‘they’.
When a ship transits the canal, it doesnt do so on its own power. The Canal Authority (Egypt) has tugs come alongside and the tugs guide the ship through. The almost certainly send a pilot to the bridge of the transiting ship who coordinates ship steering with tug operation. This is very similar to harbor ops throughout the world.
The Egyptians make ALOT of money with what they charge for transit, so they have little incentive to block the canal.
As an aside, our carrier group transited the canal 6 times in the lead up to the up to Desert Storm. It takes about 12 hours to go through the canal. From the deck it is pretty boring scenery but its was interesting to see the occasion tank hulk (Arab) on the banks; remnants, well preserved in the desert environment, left over from the 67 war.
Yep, unfortunately!!